Servicing

National home values continued their year-long climb as prices rose in October for the twelfth consecutive month.

The average 30-year mortgage rate set another record as it slid three basis points to 3.31% in Freddie Mac’s latest weekly survey.

FHA said these changes will not only assist families in keeping their homes, but will reduce the number of full claims against the FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund.

The recovery of the mortgage market relies partly on banks' ability to quickly sell the real estate properties they own to new buyers.

Mortgage application volume decreased by 2.2% on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ended Nov. 16, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association, as rates ticked upwards for the period.

The agency issued a mortgagee letter late Tuesday eliminating many restrictions that blocked servicers from using the FHA-HAMP loan modification program to assist troubled borrowers with government-backed loans.

Prosecutors said from March to October 2009 Lorraine Brown instituted “a surrogate signing policy whereby employees signed, not their name, but the names of other employees on thousands of mortgage documents that were notarized and filed across the country.”

Eligible borrowers may ask for an independent review of their mortgage foreclosure file if they believe that they were financially injured as a result of servicer errors, misrepresentations or other deficiencies in the foreclosure process.

Signs are evident that health is returning to the housing and mortgage markets as the days of no downpayment, speculators and strategic defaults are fading.

Residential Capital LLC won court approval to sell its mortgage-servicing unit to Ocwen Financial for $3 billion after putting off a fight with loan investors and resolving other objections.